Big data analytics will go beyond the proof-of-concept phase and into production in established markets.

As the cloud-broker model gains traction in Asia Pacific, organisations will transform their IT departments from technology implementers to business innovators.

Concerns over data security will reach a tipping point, not only for the mobile data that moves between devices and the cloud, but also for data in content repositories.

The Asia Pacific region will witness an explosion of unstructured data from mobile communications.

Competition between different countries and regions to become the digital hub of Asia will enter a critical stage in 2014.

“Big data, cloud, and data encryption are some of the hottest global IT trends. As a region, Asia Pacific has its own unique economic and infrastructure conditions. We believe these wider technology trends will combine with local business drivers to shape the IT and storage landscape in this region in 2014,” De Luca said.

Big data analytics will go beyond proof of concept:
Enterprises will have to find ways to uncover value from within their existing data stores and deploy scalable infrastructures to extract meaningful outcomes from big data projects.

In the recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Asia Pacific Big Data Survey, sponsored by HDS, over 70% of organisations in the region believe big data adoption will improve their profitability, productivity, and innovation. However, many organisations find that their existing information systems hinder the effective gathering of data for analysis as the information is stored and managed in separate business systems, information silos, formats, and media. The big data challenge comes in two forms: technology and organisation. In 2014, companies will try to address both.

The cloud-broker model will gain traction:
Organisations will transform their IT departments from technology implementers to business innovators. Enterprises with high-demand IT infrastructure and application services will start exploring the cloud-broker model, preferring to work with providers who act as vendor-neutral third-party cloud services brokerages.

When it comes time to refresh technology, the focus will be on applications and business outcomes rather than the infrastructure itself. Enterprises will start turning to their system integrators, internal IT organizations, or third-party service providers to play the role of cloud-service broker.

Concerns over data security will reach a tipping point:
Across Asia Pacific, new legislation is being introduced to protect personal data. Organisations will have to re-examine their security policies and look to solutions such as enterprise file sync and share, data encryption, and auditability to address these issues.

Organisations will increase their emphasis on mobile and edge security, and will implement stricter security and data management practices. They will have to use modern technologies to manage and automate these processes; otherwise the cost of compliance could be very high.

Unstructured data from mobile communications will see explosive growth:
Telecom operators in Asia Pacific will need to deploy sophisticated data management solutions to address needs for both content delivery and data analysis. Those that do will gain a competitive advantage in the long term.

The rollout of 4G and the affordability of smartphones have tremendous implications for the growth of mobile data in the region. To manage the growing volume of digital content services to consumers, telecom operators will need to develop a scalable, high-performance and reliable IT infrastructure architecture that incorporates flash-based storage and intelligent content delivery networks to meet these high-bandwidth requirements.

Competition to become the digital hub of Asia will enter a critical stage:
The data centre industry will continue to grow as countries in the region compete to become the digital hub of Asia. Service providers will invest in state-of-the-art facilities and advanced infrastructure to differentiate their services.

Organisations use cloud deployments as an opportunity to transform their legacy IT to new consumption-based IT models. Many will start with the deployment of on-premise private clouds. Other organisations that are more advanced in their cloud journey will begin to move their enterprise applications off premises to cloud service providers, together with on-premise converged platforms.

In addition to De Luca’s predictions for Asia Pacific, Hu Yoshida, chief technology officer of HDS, also revealed his predictions on top 10 global IT trends for 2014. The predictions are published on Hu’s blog.

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About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems provides information technologies, services and solutions that help companies improve IT costs and agility, and innovate with information to make a difference in the world. Our customers gain compelling return on investment (ROI), unmatched return on assets (ROA), and demonstrable business impact. With approximately 6,300 employees worldwide, Hitachi Data Systems does business in more than 100 countries and regions. Our products, services and solutions are trusted by the world's leading enterprises, including more than 70% of the Fortune 100 and more than 80% of the Fortune Global 100. Visit us at http://www.hds.com/anz/.

About Hitachi Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2012 (ended March 31, 2013) totaled 9,041 billion yen ($96.1 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, power systems, construction machinery, high functional material & components, automotive systems and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.